Carbonic anhydrase III inhibition in normocapnic and hypercapnic contracting mouse soleus

The physiological role of carbonic anhydrase III in slow-twitch skeletal muscle was investigated using isolated mouse soleus (N = 30) contracting once every 1.7 min for 75 min in Krebs–Henseleit solution gassed with either 95% oxygen – 5% carbon dioxide (normocapnia) or 90% oxygen – 10% carbon dioxide (hypercapnia). Each contraction was 500 ms in duration at 50 Hz. When muscles contracted in normocapnic solution (pH 7.42), the developed tension decreased an average of 6.1 ± 0.8% over 25 min. For the next 50 min, 15 muscles remained normocapnic, while the remainder contracted in hypercapnic solution (pH 7.20). Tension decreased significantly more with hypercapnia. For the last 25 min, both normocapnic and hypercapnic muscles were divided into three treatment groups (N = 5). One group continued in the same environment, while acetazolamide (final concentration of 10−5 M) was added to the bath of the second and sodium cyanate (final concentration of 10−5 M) was added to the bath of the third group. Acetazolamide had no effect on tension in either carbon dioxide environment. Sodium cyanate significantly decreased tension from the hypercapnic control but had no effect in normocapnia. Thus carbonic anhydrase III inhibition with sodium cyanate increased the effect of hypercapnia implying that carbonic anhydrase III assists in the regulation of free hydrogen ion concentration in slow-twitch skeletal muscle.